Inner sole for welt shoes



April 27, 1943- w. 1.. KNIFE I INNER SOLE FOR WELT SHOES FiledA Feb. 5. 1940 I 7711er( Patented Apr. 27, 1943 INNER SOLE FOR WELT SHOES William L. Knipe, Haverhill, Mass., assignor to Knipe Bros., Inc., Ward Hill, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application February 6, 1940, Serial No. 317,468

1 Claim. (Cl. 36-22) This invention relates to certain improvements in welt shoes or in inner soles therefor of the type shown in the patent to Knipe #1,444,420, dated June 29, 1915.

While inner soles of the type disclosed in said patent have been successfully employed for many years in the construction of welt shoes, as their use enables the production of a shoe of this type which has a flexible fore part, an objection to the use of an innersole of this type has been that, if a metal shank stiifener is employed which extended for the full length of the shank portion, so as to provide an effective arch support, it was likely to become uncomfortable to the wearer, as its front end was likely to press inward sufficiently to cause a raised portion, or hump at the front end of the shank portion of the shoe.

For this reason the practice has been to employ a metal stiiener which extended forwardly only a short distance beyond the heel breast.

An objection to this arrangement was that the support which was provided for the longitudinal arc-h of the foot of the wearer was insufficient.

The object of my invention is to provide an inner sole of the type above referred to which will have a suiciently flexible forepart and which, at the same time will enable a full length metal shank stiffener, or arch support to be employed in the construction of the shoe without causing discomfort to the wearer and without decreasing the flexibility of the portions of the shoe which it is desirable to be made flexible.

I accomplish this object by providing the inner sole with a reinforcing portion which extends over the entire portion of the shank in which the metal shank support is to be located, and terminates approximately at the ball line, so that the forepart portion of the shoe will be as flexible as when provided with an innersole constructed as disclosed in said prior patent, and, at the same time, an effective arch support will be provided, which will not cause discomfort to the wearer by pressing inward against the flexible insole at its front end.

For a more complete disclosure of the construction which I employ reference is now made to the following specification, in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a bottom plan view of an inner sole which I employ.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view thereof, at line 2-2 of Fig, 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan View of the reinforcing section.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the completed shoe.

As shown in the drawing, a shoe is provided with an inner sole which is constructed similarly to the inner sole disclosed in the said prior patent, as it comprises a sole section a of thin, soft leather, which has been split from the iiesh side of a skin and cut out in complete sole shape, and a textile section b which consists of two layers of adhesively connected canvas, which is also cut out in complete sole shape but is slightly wider or larger than the section a, so that when laid at thereon the edge portion thereof projects to a slight extent beyond the edges of the section a and is adapted to be turned up to provide a lip to which the welt and upper is attached. According to my invention I provide the inner sole with a reinforcing section c of sheet material such as liber, or leather, preferably the latter, and which extends from vthe heel end to the ball line, and has its front end portion skived to a thin edge, the section c being interposed between the sections a and b and the three sections being secured together by stitches d.

Before the outer sole is attached to the welt, a metal shank stiiener y is secured to the bottom side of the inner sole in such a position that it extends from some point in the heel portion, approximately an inch in the rear of the heel breast, close to the front end of the unskived portion of the section c, sothat the full thickness of the section c will be interposed between the metal stiffener y and the top section a. y As thus arranged the reinforcing sectionvc will prevent the front end portion of the metal stiif' ener from forcing up the inner sole portion di-A rectly thereabove, causing a hump which would be uncomfortable to the wearer, and at the same time the flexibility of the shoe is not impaired at any point where flexibility is desirable and the full benefit of a stiff, arch supporting shank is secured.

I claim:

An inner sole for welt shoes composed of a sole shaped top section of limp thin flexible sheet material having plane surfaces and being too thin for satisfactory channeling, and a sole-shaped bottom section of textile material having a downturned edge portion providing a lip for attachment to an upper and a welt and disposed on and coextensive with one of the plane surfaces ofthe top section, a reinforcing section of relatively stiff sheet material disposed between said sections and coextensive in width therewith and extending from the heel endy approximately to TENT-I "oFFlcE the ball line and having its front end skived to a sharp edge, a line of stitching spaced from the edge of the sole shaped top section and extending through said textile material close to the downturned edge portion thereof for securing the top section, the textile bottom section and the intermediate stiff sheet material together from about the heel breast line on one side of the sole around the forepartto about the heel breast line on the other side of the sole, and a metal shank stiener secured beneath and against the lower face of said textile section and extending from beneath the heel portion thereof and terminating at its front end closely adjacent but rearwardly of the ball line and beneath the reinforcing section, and in the rea-r of the skived portion thereof.

WM. L. KNIPE. 

